View source for The Men Who Stare at Goats

{{Short description|2004 nonfiction book by Jon Ronson}}
{{About|a book and accompanying TV series|the movie based on the book|The Men Who Stare at Goats (film)}}
{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = The Men Who Stare at Goats
| image         = The men who stare at goats book cover.png
| caption = First edition
| alt           =
| author        = [[Jon Ronson]]
| country       = United Kingdom<br/>United States
| language      = English
| genre         = [[Non-fiction]], [[Investigative journalism|Investigative Journalism]]
| publisher     = [[Picador (imprint)|Picador]] (UK)<br/>[[Simon & Schuster]] (US)
| release_date  = 2004
| isbn          = 978-0-330-37547-4
| oclc          = 56653467
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover]] and [[Paperback]])<br/>[[Audiobook]]
| pages         = 277 (first edition, hardback)
}}
'''''The Men Who Stare at Goats''''' (2004) is a non-fiction book by [[Jon Ronson]] concerning the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]]'s exploration of [[New Age]] concepts and the potential military applications of the [[paranormal]]. The title refers to attempts to kill [[goat]]s by staring at them and stopping their hearts. The book is a companion to a three-part TV series broadcast in Britain on [[Channel 4]]—''Crazy Rulers of the World'' (2004)—the first episode of which is also entitled "The Men Who Stare at Goats". The same title was used a third time for a loose [[The Men Who Stare at Goats (film)|feature film adaptation]] in 2009.
==Content==
===Book synopsis===
The book's first five chapters examine the efforts of a handful of U.S. Army officers in the late 1970s and early 1980s to exploit [[paranormal]] phenomena, [[New Age]] philosophy, and elements of the [[human potential movement]] to enhance U.S. military intelligence-gathering capabilities as well as overall operational effectiveness. These include the ''[[First Earth Battalion|First Earth Battalion Operations Manual]]'' (1979) and a "psychic spy unit" established by Army Intelligence at [[Fort George G. Meade|Fort Meade]], Maryland, in the late 1970s. (This was the [[Stargate Project]],<ref>[[Alex Heard|Heard, Alex]] (10 April 2010), [http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050410/news_lz1v10close.html "Close your eyes and remote view this review"], ''[[U-T San Diego|Union-Tribune San Diego]]'', Union-Tribune Publishing Co. [Book review of ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'']: “This so-called "remote viewing" operation continued for years, and came to be known as Star Gate.”</ref><ref>[[David Clarke (journalist)|Clarke, David]] (2014), [https://books.google.com/books?id=EkJBBAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Jon+Ronson%22+%22Star+Gate%22&pg=PA112 ''Britain's X-traordinary Files''], London: [[Bloomsbury Publishing]], pg 112.: “The existence of the Star Gate project was not officially acknowledged until 1995... then became the subject of investigations by journalists Jon Ronson [etc]...Ronson’s 2004 book, ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'', was subsequently adapted into a 2009 movie...”</ref><ref>[[Michael Shermer|Shermer, Michael]] (November 2009), [http://www.michaelshermer.com/2009/11/staring-at-men-who-stare-at-goats/ “Staring at Men Who Stare at Goats”] @ Michaelshermer.com.:”...the U.S. Army had invested $20 million in a highly secret psychic spy program called Star Gate .... In ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'' Jon Ronson tells the story of this program, how it started, the bizarre twists and turns it took, and how its legacy carries on today.”</ref><ref>[[Stanley Krippner|Krippner, Stanley]] and Harris L. Friedman (2010), [https://books.google.com/books?id=F4-p5TIyoNMC&dq=%22stargate%22+%22Ronson%22+goat&pg=PA154 ''Debating Psychic Experience: Human Potential Or Human Illusion?''], Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger/Greenwood Publishing Group, pg 154: “The story of Stargate was recently featured in a film based on the book ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'', by British investigative journalist Jon Ronson (2004)”.</ref> which the book never mentions by name.) Ronson is put on the historical trail of the "men who stare at goats"—[[U.S. Special Forces|Special Forces]] soldiers who supposedly experimented with psychic powers against [[de-bleated]] goats at [[Fort Bragg (North Carolina)|Fort Bragg]], [[North Carolina]], at the now-decommissioned "Goat Lab" medical training facility. He examines, and dispenses with, several candidates for the legendary "master sergeant" (Chapter 2) who was reported to have killed a goat simply by staring at it, in the earliest days of the program. A martial arts instructor named [[Guy Savelli]] claims to be the one.
In the middle third of the book (Chapters 6–11), the author leaps to the present day—i.e., 2004, just after the [[Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse|Abu Ghraib abuse]] revelations—and attempts to make connections between the earlier (now terminated, and mostly discredited) military programs and the abuses resulting from the post-9/11 [[War on Terror]] (Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, psyops in Iraq, etc.). This includes the use of the children's song "I Love You" from [[Barney & Friends]] on Iraqi prisoners-of-war. A purported linking element is the alleged use of music and [[subliminal messaging]] at the 1993 [[Waco siege]] and other FBI operations. Another is the private business "franchises" and consultancies that retired members of the "psychic unit" later pursued as civilians. A connection is also proposed between these "privatized" psychics and the mass-suicide of members of the [[Heaven's Gate (religious group)|Heaven's Gate cult]] in 1997.
The final section of the book (Chapters 13–16) leaps backward to the 1950s and attempts to connect the Army psychic program, and later interrogation techniques, with the CIA's [[MK-ULTRA]] "mind control" research program and the notorious death of Army researcher [[Frank Olson]] in 1953. Ronson spends time with Olson's son Eric as he attempts to uncover the mystery of his father's death. Eric suggests that Frank Olson was murdered, not simply because he knew too much but, rather, that he was having a crisis of conscience and seriously entertaining the notion of going public with all that he knew. The narrative ends with the suggestion that the "psychic warriors" are now back in business working for the U.S. military again, possibly in support of assassinations.
===Featured individuals===
====Interviewed by Ronson====
*Glenn B. Wheaton, retired [[U.S. Army Special Forces]] [[Sergeant first class|sergeant]] with [[5th SFG]]; [[psychic]] and [[remote viewer]]; set Ronson on the trail of the "men who stare at goats"
*[[Albert Stubblebine]], retired Army major general; career military intelligence officer; proponent of psychic warfare, levitation, spoon-bending and walking through walls
*[[Jim Channon]], retired Army lieutenant colonel; author of the ''First Earth Battalion Operations Manual''; New Age guru and consultant
*[[John B. Alexander]], retired Army colonel; proponent of non-lethal weapons and of military applications of the paranormal; introduced Channon's book to Stubblebine
*Frederick Holmes "Skip" Atwater, retired Army lieutenant; Gen. Stubblebine's "psychic headhunter"; later president of the [[Monroe Institute]]
*James V. Hardt, research psychologist and expert on the electrophysiological basis of spiritual states; assisted the "men who stare at goats"
*[[Steven Halpern]], [[new-age music]]ian consulted by the Army on how to deploy music as a weapon or for mind-control via subliminal messages
*[[Guy Savelli]], [[martial artist]] and psychic; recruited to work with US Special Forces by Col. Alexander; purportedly "downed" a goat and killed a [[hamster]] using only his mind
*Pete Brusso, martial artist and psychic; inventor/marketer of a personal self-defense weapon ("the Predator"); Savelli's rival for US military contract work
*[[Uri Geller]], [[spoon-bending]] Israeli celebrity psychic entertainer; self-described consultant to the US military
*Prof. [[Courtney Brown (researcher)|Courtney Brown]], [[Emory University]] political scientist and paranormal proponent; allegedly barred from the Art Bell radio show after inspiring the [[Heaven's Gate (religious group)|Heaven's Gate]] mass suicide
*Prudence Calabrese, psychic who worked with Courtney Brown; also banned from the Art Bell radio show
*[[Christopher Cerf (musician and television producer)|Christopher Cerf]], ''[[Sesame Street]]'' songwriter; song appropriated by US Army [[PsyOps]] soldiers in Iraq
*[[Jamal al-Harith]], Jamaican-British convert to Islam; subjected to musical weirdness as [[GTMO]] prisoner
*[[Stargate Project#Ed Dames|Edward ("Ed") A. Dames]], retired Army major, intelligence officer and psychic; frequent guest on the Art Bell radio show; known as "Dr Doom"
*[[Joseph McMoneagle]], retired Army NCO and chief warrant officer; intelligence officer and psychic; now runs a remote viewing business
*Lyn Buchanan, retired Army intelligence NCO and psychic; unlike several of his colleagues, did not go on to develop a civilian "psychic franchise"
*Eric Olson, son of [[Frank Olson]]; lifelong activist to uncover cause of his father's mysterious death
*[[Bob Ricks]], American law enforcement official; incident commander at 1993 [[Waco siege]]
*Norman Cournoyer, Ft. Detrick colleague of Frank Olson; confirmed to Frank's son Eric that, in his view, his father's death was a CIA murder
====Discussed in depth====
*[[Michael Echanis]], self-styled "soldier of fortune" and psychic martial artist; "pin up" icon for Special Forces groupies; died in a 1978 accident in Nicaragua
*Gen. [[Manuel Noriega]], superstitious dictator of [[Panama]]; exploited sorcery and witchcraft to wield power; nemesis of Gen. Stubblebine
*[[Art Bell]], late night radio host and proponent of all manner of paranormality and conspiracies; mentor to Ed Dames
*[[Tony Robbins]], self-help guru and [[Firewalking|firewalker]]; mentor to Gen. Stubblebine
*[[Frank Burns (colonel)|Frank Burns]], retired Army colonel and Internet pioneer; purportedly coined (with Channon) the Army's '80s recruiting slogan "[[Slogans of the United States Army#1980 to 2001|Be All That You Can Be]]"
*[[Igor Smirnov (scientist)|Igor Smirnov]], Russian psychiatrist; mind-control and thought projection expert; consulted by FBI during the 1993 [[Waco siege]]
*[[Frank Olson]], American bacteriologist and Army bio-weaponeer; died in 1953 in tragic CIA misadventure
*[[Sidney Gottlieb]], American chemist and CIA spymaster; dosed Frank Olson with LSD days before his death
*"Dr. Bucha", U.S. Army scientist who, in the 1950s, investigated tactical uses of helicopter [[flicker vertigo]]; may be an urban legend as no one knows his first name
*[[David Koresh]], American leader of the [[Branch Davidians]] religious sect; subjected to musical weirdness and finally killed during 1993 Waco siege
==Reception==
Ronson's book was met with mostly positive, often glowing, reviews: the ''[[Boston Globe]]'' opined that it is "a hilarious and unsettling book.... Ronson comes off as an unusual cross between [[Comedy Central]]'s [[Jon Stewart]] and ''[[The New Yorker]]''{{'}}s [[Seymour Hersh]]." ''[[The New York Times]]''{{'}} [[Janet Maslin]] stated that "Ronson sets up his book perfectly. It moves with wry, precise agility from crackpot to crackpot in its search for the essence of this early New Age creativity....".
Some critics, however, were skeptical of what they considered Ronson's shaky logic and some of his bolder assertions. [[Alex Heard]]'s review in ''[[U-T San Diego]]'' was subtitled "''Goats'' tries hard to link psychic-spy projects from the past to today's events, and mostly fails". In many instances, he wrote, "...there isn't a link. Instead there's a progression of occurrences that don't connect in a meaningful way. The result is a strange new blend: Conspiracy theory meets Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.... You're left feeling like you've been told a shaggy-goat story."<ref>Heard, ''[[Op. cit.]]''</ref>
==Television series==
{{Expand section|date=November 2015}}
The 2004 series ''Crazy Rulers of the World'' was aired in three parts:
*Part 1: "The Men Who Stare at Goats"
*Part 2: "Funny Torture"
*Part 3: "The Psychic Footsoldiers"
It was broadcast in Britain on [[Channel 4]].
==Feature film adaptation==
{{Main|The Men Who Stare at Goats (film)}}
A fictionalized feature film version of the book was released in 2009 under the same name. [[Grant Heslov]] directed from a script by [[Peter Straughan]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-nov-01-ca-bridges1-story.html | title=Jeff Bridges, psychic warrior | newspaper=LA Times | date=November 1, 2009 | author=Geoff Boucher}}</ref> It is set in [[Iraq]], but was filmed in Comerío Street, [[Bayamón, Puerto Rico]] and at the [[New Mexico Military Institute]]. The story centers on "Bob Wilton" ([[Ewan McGregor]]) a desperate reporter who stumbles upon the story of a lifetime. He meets "Lyn Cassady" ([[George Clooney]]) who claims to be a former secret U.S. military psychic soldier re-activated post-[[9/11]]. [[Jeff Bridges]] plays "Bill Django", the founder of the psychic soldier program and Lyn's mentor. [[Kevin Spacey]] plays "Larry Hooper" who is a former psychic soldier now running a rogue [[Psychological Operations (United States)|PsyOps]] unit in Iraq.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/48782-these-are-the-men-who-stare-at-goats | title=These are The Men Who Stare at Goats | publisher=ComingSoon.net | date=September 12, 2008 | access-date=2010-03-29}}</ref> The film is prefaced with a title card stating "More of this is true than you would believe". The DVD release of ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'' includes a bonus documentary featuring Ronson and many of the people who feature prominently in his book.
Coinciding with the release of the feature film in 2009, John Sergeant, the producer of the TV series ''Crazy Rulers of the World'', accused Ronson of "airbrushing him out of the story". While Ronson dedicated his book to Sergeant and included an afterword commending his research and guidance, the feature film did not mention his contributions.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-sergeant/how-i-was-airbrushed-out_b_362356.html |title=How My Involvement with The Men Who Stare at Goats Was Erased Entirely |publisher=Huffingtonpost.com |date= 2009-12-01|access-date=2010-03-29 |first=John |last=Sergeant}}</ref><ref name="independent1">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/clooney-caught-in-crossfire-as-war-breaks-out-over-latest-film-1813635.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/clooney-caught-in-crossfire-as-war-breaks-out-over-latest-film-1813635.html |archive-date=2022-06-18 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Clooney caught in crossfire as war breaks out over latest film – News, Films |work=The Independent |date= 2009-11-03|access-date=2010-03-29 | location=London | first=Arifa | last=Akbar}}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q1164779|title=The Men Who Stare at Goats}}
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q128789812|title=The Crazy Rulers of the World}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110811190649/http://arcturus.org/field_manual.pdf PDF] of original First Earth Battalion manual
* {{cite web|title=Book Discussion on ''The Men Who Stare at Goats''|url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?186334-1/the-men-stare-goats|publisher=[[C-SPAN]]|access-date=2 May 2015|date=14 April 2005}}
{{Jon Ronson}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Men Who Stare At Goats}}
[[Category:2004 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Books about the United States military]]
[[Category:Books by Jon Ronson]]
[[Category:Military research of the United States]]
[[Category:Non-fiction books adapted into films]]
[[Category:Parapsychology]]
[[Category:Supernatural books]]
[[Category:Works about Project MKUltra]]